Page:NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SURVEY 13A; EAST GERMANY; COUNTRY PROFILE CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110020-1.pdf/25

 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110020-1


 * October
 * Yugoslavia recognizes East Germany; first nonbloc state to do so.

1958
 * February
 * Purge begins of leading Communist functionaries who oppose pace of Ulbricht's economic policies; party and government reorganized.
 * November
 * East and West Germany formalize commercial relations by signing Interzonal Trade Agreement, which for years serves as principal official link between them.

1959
 * May-August
 * Big Four foreign ministers meet at Geneva in futile attempt to work out formula for German unification; East and West represented as "advisors."

1960
 * April
 * Government undertakes drive to complete agricultural collectivization.
 * September
 * Upon death of Wilhelm Pieck, office of president abolished; Council of State created as replacement with SED chief Ulbricht elected chairman.

1961
 * July-August
 * East German refugees to West Berlin and West Germany reach highest number since 1953; 33,415 in July and 47,433 in August.
 * August
 * Escapes virtually stopped by erection of Berlin wall and by strengthening of defenses on East-West German demarcation line.

1962
 * January
 * Universal military training law passed.
 * August
 * Would-be defector Peter Fechter shot and allowed to bleed to death at the Berlin wall in highly published instance of East German brutality.

1963
 * June
 * Ulbricht proposes and later (February 1964) spells out New Economic System which places emphasis on such factors as profitability, realistic price-cost relationships, greater outlays for research, material incentives for workers, and increased managerial responsibility.
 * August
 * Nuclear Test Ban Treaty signed by East Germany.
 * December
 * West Berlin and East German authorities conclude first Berlin Pass Agreement whereby West Berlin citizens visit relatives in East Berlin.

1964
 * June
 * Soviet-East German Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance signed.
 * September
 * Premier Otto Grotewohl dies and is succeeded by Willi Stoph.

1965
 * April
 * Soviet and East German military forces harass West German civilian and Allied military traffic to West Berlin in retaliation for West German Bundestag meeting in West Berlin.
 * September
 * Ulbricht leads high-level delegation to Moscow to receive support for GDR claims to international recognition of its sovereign status; marks beginning of more intensive Soviet-GDR bilateral relations.
 * October
 * Youth riots occur in Leipzig and other East German cities.
 * December
 * SED leaders criticize youth and cultural policies at 11th plenum of the SED Central Committee; subsequent return to hardline cultural policy produces many incidents between regime and intellectuals during 1966.
 * Erich Apel, head of the State Planning Commission, commits suicide in spectacular act of protest against Soviet economic demands on East Germany.

1966
 * March
 * In bid for international recognition, East Germany applies for U.N. membership through Polish offices.

1967
 * February
 * Nationality law enacted by People's Chamber establishes for first time concept of "citizens of GDR" as distinct from "German nationality."
 * Warsaw Pact Foreign Ministers discuss bilateral relations with West Germany; East Germans, Poles against; Czechs, Bulgarians, Hungarians favor.
 * March-September
 * GDR seeks to shore up opposition to Bonn; signs 20-year bilateral treaties with Poland and Czechoslovakia (March), Hungary (May), and Bulgaria (September).

20

APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110020-1